Review of A Labyrinth of Time (2004) by Yazmin D — 23 Aug 2008

The Juxtapositions series of modern-classical documentary DVDs has featured such great composers as Mahler, Boulez, and Kurtag, and with Frank Scheffer's A LABYRINTH OF TIME we get a full-length overview of the life and work of Elliott Carter. At 98 years old as I write this, Carter has got a long career behind him, but his output has only increased in old age, and this film celebrates him as a major American composer.

Far from being a meaningless jumble of notes, Carter's music is, according to the composer, meant to represent the interaction of various personalities, play on the listener's perception of time, and symbolize the hubbub of the automobile and jet age. Indeed, Carter says that his turn to the avant-garde was motivated not by a search for abstraction, but rather by a desire to write music closer to life in our hectic contemporary society. There are plenty of music snippets here. We see the Arditti Quartet performing the String Quartet No. 1, cellist Fred Sherry helping the composer in the writing of the Cello Concerto and "For Mr. Ives", and pianist Ursula Oppens rehearsing the Piano Concerto. Charles Rosen, Pierre Boulez, and Daniel Barenboim are interviewed about their admiration for Carter's music.

As the title suggests, the documentary celebrates not only Carter's music but also the composer's long life. Indeed, the very first words spoken in the film are Carter reminiscing about Europe in l'entre deux guerres and his return to London after World War II. We see him looking over old examination papers from his time with Nadia Boulanger, reflecting on his admiration for Charles Ives and Edgar Varese. A major theme is how how New York has changed since his boyhood there in the 1910s, with the arrival of the automobile, the shifting artistic landscape, and (communicated only by a camera shot, not with words), the destruction of the World Trade Center. The earliest footage includes some domestic scenes with his late wife Helen Carter, who gave up a promising career as a sculpture to support her husband's music.

I was disappointed that there is no extra material on the disc besides the film itself. Other Juxtapositions discs have a second film or footage of the performance of a work. Nonetheless, if you are a Carter fan, this is a documentary worth seeing.